The Three-Body Problem

One difficulty of book adaptations is it will never play out perfectly as it would in each reader's mind. Of course the show won't live up to the masterpiece that is Three Body Problem. That kind of scifi epic only happens ever so often; one's that can be adapted to a show even rarer. However, the show stays true to "show, don't tell", and despite some negligible flawed, eager ensemble acting, as well as a few examples of over-exaggerated editing here and there, it incorporates much of the content from the books while adding much non-cgi visually impressive elements to enrich the shows format as a visual medium. One aspect I especially enjoyed was the main cast. The casting for major characters also reflects the books surprisingly well, and the acting of major characters deserve to be applauded.

Overall, watch this show. It's engaging, aesthetically pleasing, and retains most of Liu Cixin's psychological mind-bending science fiction masterpiece.

This could be better than the netflix version, as it is a more faithful adaptation, but that's not always the most important thing and this show suffers with some pretty bad pacing issues because they are using dialogue directly from the book in some scenes and it seems as if they aren't leaving out a single page aside from chronologically shuffling a few things about. Not necessarily out of order overall, but out of order of how they are presented in the books.

There's a ton of exposition in the books that could actually be shortened in the show because you are actually able to show more of the things that the book had to tell you. They don't go this route. They show AND tell everything. It makes for some unnecessarily long scenes. This shouldn't have been more than 15 or 16 episodes max. I have a hard time believing that I would have liked this if I had not already read the novel.

I have not read the trilogy. I learned about this series from my research after watching the netflix adaptation. I found the netflix series entertaining and well produced but I could tell it was drawing from source material more complex than what was presented. Thus my research to find out more about Liu Cixin. I was planning to start reading the trilogy (and I will) but saw this Chinese production.

So, I am pretty nerdy and I love more expository, detailed sc-fi. The flashy stuff is fun but give me some complex ideas to chew on and I am in heaven (think Mindwalk, Jacobs Ladder, Stalker). The Chinese production, Three-Body, has that in spades, maybe even too much. For me this series really drew out the existential crisis of the impending arrival of an more advanced extraterrestrial civilization. The motives of the various chacters are well developed as are the philosophical and scientific concepts. I found the acting and screenwriting mostly well done. The production quality was ok, though uneven (especially the soundtrack). I personally found the insights into modern Chinese culture quite fascinating as well.

I did find the subtitles to be poorly executed, often flashing too briefly to read easily. One episode had the subtitles out sync which obviously made for a tough watch. The pacing is uneven but really improves in the final 10 episodes (out of 30).

Overall I have really enjoyed the series. There is enough intellectual stuff to keep me engaged and the production is pretty good but not perfect. I look forward to reading the trilogy and then watching the series again.

The only good thing about the Netflix adaptation is that it led me to discover this series. I read the books not long ago and thought that there weren't any adaptations. Those three books became one of my favorite science fiction sagas ever. So I was eager to watch the netflix adaptation, but alas, it was a massive disappointment. Now, I stumbled on this adaptation and watched it, and this is how you do a adaptation. 30 episodes that respect the viewers intelligence, doesn't rush, takes its time building scenes and plot points. Has no unnecessary melodrama and unfunny "funny" moments. Doesn't waste the viewers time, but doesn't butcher anything from the source material either.

The characters are all good and believable. No academics that act more like teens and dress and look like models. No dumbed down science or boring exposition.

The only cons, which are small cons, yhat i hve is that sometimes the special effects look too fake, the camera angles sometimes look like low budget, and the soudn design sometimes is too digital, but all those things happen so sapringly that it's more like nitpicking.

This is one of the best adaptations i've ever seen, and it's because it respects the source material, just like the 4 first seasons of GOT, when the show was good, and it respects the viewers intelligence, not trying to preach or educate. Instead, leaving the viewer to form its own opinions amd conclusions. I recommend this show and the boooks to everyone that likes scifi. You can read the book first or watch the show first. It's not gonna make much of a difference, that how good of an adaptation it is.

Loyal to the original work, restored most of the content, and made a small part of changes aimed at film and television. Except for the segment of the unscrupulous reporter, which is disappointing, other segments are very pleasant. In particular, the part about Hong'an Base starts from the original work and is higher than the original work. Even those who have not read the book "Three Bodies" can easily understand the plot with a little scientific literacy and curiosity. This film and television work may be an opportunity for you to understand "Three Bodies", Liu Cixin and science fiction works. It is very good to compare the animation of the Bili Bili version.